Smith's Bible Dictionary

Smith, William

A classic reference, this comprehensive Bible dictionary provides a wealth of basic background information. It includes more than 400 illustrations and special articles in addition to page after page of basic information.

Bee

Bee (debôrâh). Deut. 1:44; Judges 14:8; Ps. 118:12; Isa. 7:18. Bees abounded in Palestine, honey being a common article of food, Ps. 81:16, and was often found in the clefts of rocks and in hollow trees. 1 Sam. 14:25, 27. English naturalists know little of the species of bees that are found in Palestine, but are inclined to believe that the honey-bee of Palestine is distinct from the honey-bee (Apis mellifica) of this country. The passage in Isa. 7:18 refers “to the custom of the people in the East of calling attention to any one by a significant hiss or rather hist.”

We read, Judges 14:8, that “after a time,” probably many days, Samson returned to the carcass of the lion he had slain, and saw bees and honey therein. “If any one here represents to himself a corrupt and putrid carcass, the occurrence ceases to have any true similitude, for it is well known that in these countries, at certain seasons of the year, the heat will in the course of twenty-four hours completely dry up the moisture of dead camels, and that, without their undergoing decomposition, their bodies long remain like mummies, unaltered and entirely free from offensive odor.”—Œdmann.